Page 92

By Jack Joseph Smith

There is no need now The past has been written off Like time sunk in cement at Worlds Fast We sing of lonely shots of piercing stardyst While our rhyme never sees the sun swing Waist belted up with craving eyes We can not even step off of street cormors; any longer for the mis-step in our gut Yes we kissed the world goodby And did not slightly consider it a dream

Original Scan

AI Interpretation

GPT

The poem speaks in a flat, exhausted voice that treats farewell to the world as something already completed rather than still being decided.

Its power comes from compression: the past is "written off," time is sunk, songs are lonely, and even rhyme is cut off from sunlight. Bodily phrases like "craving eyes" and "mis-step in our gut" keep the despair physical instead of abstract. By the end, kissing the world goodbye is stated without drama, which makes the emotional numbness more severe.

Claude

Short lyric: no need now, the past written off like cement at a World's Fair, lonely shots of piercing stardust.

The poem is a short statement of withdrawal — even the attempt to cross streets is refused. 'Waist belted up with craving eyes' sets desire below the waist and hunger above, which is the page's anatomical accounting. Kissing the world goodbye 'and did not slightly consider it a dream' is the line that refuses to soften the exit.